Translated from Dutch to English – www.onlinedoctranslator.com
TIE ENJOY
My love for diving is driven by the versatility, the adventure, a wonderful world and above all because diving is likemeditation. The dry world melts like snow in the sun with every meter I descend. Wonderful ‘bimbling’ in shallowwaters where the sun rays plays, discovering and exploring a wreck, peering through my lens in search of the perfect shot, descending to great depths in seeking sharks. Yes, diving is amazing and very immersive and relaxing. Now, as a dive guide, I meet a lot of divers and see how much and in what ways people can enjoy themselves. And every time I see such a joyful moment I have to smile at the recognition and it is seldom that I am surprised, yet Nasam succeeded.
We have been out on the Red Sea for a few days and this week we visit the beautiful and world famous wrecks in the north. And at some of the briefings I noticed that Nasem asks if we can also dive shallower. We can’t always just dive shallower with a wreck as the target, since the sunken ship is at a certain depth. And as soon as I finish this briefing, I ask Nasem; ‘Is there a reason you prefer to dive shallowly?’ After some hesitation, he says that he thinks he is using too much air, because he dives with a 15 liter tank and still has to leave the water around 40-45 minutes. Now my fellow guide dives with Nasem’s group and I suggest that they dive together so that the guide can help Nasem improve his air consumption. I see both men talking about it and discussing options and I know Nasem is in good hands. And after a few dives his consumption decreases, Nasem dives again with his ‘normal buddy’ and his consumption incvreases back to 45 min maximum. Well that can be self-confidence or focus or perhaps fear, but Nasem indicates that he does not suffer from that at all and to be honest we don’t experience him that way either. He’s really super relaxed underwater, I’ve seen him a few times when passing and he can really hang around quietly floating with a kind of blissful smile. Yet we do not succeed to find a working solution for the dives with the buddy, that’s strange isn’t it? It just won’t let me go and after every dive I ask Nasem how it went and we chat about possibilities, but nothing seems to resolve it.
Now the week is almost over and we are getting ready for the last dive on El Mina, a minehunter that lies at a depth of 30 meters. Not everyone is going to do the last dive and we are left with a small group that would like a guide and that’s how I get Nasem in my group. Once we’re ready we jump off the stern of our liveaboard one by one and descend along the anchorline to the bottom. Because we are now diving 30 meters deep, I ask everyone about their tank pressure and Nasem still has 160 bar, comparable to the other divers, so the ‘problem’ is not in the descent, it pops into my head. We dive calmly and relaxed along the starboard side of the tilted wreck and as soon as we go over the top I ask again all divers about their tank pressure and everyone has around 110-130, including Nasem. And so I ask at the end of each phase, even when we enter the safety stop and every time Nasem’s consumption is equal to the group.
Time to relax while hanging on the anchor line in a gentle current as we sit out our safety stop. In the distance I hear familiar melodies from operas that my mother loves, but I don’t understand this. Where does that sound come from? Can’t come from the boat, we don’t have any opera there. And while I think about it extensively and look around me questioningly, I also see that my stop time has come to an end and I ask everyone if they are also finished with the stop and the desired OK signs appears. We leave the line and together we drift under our boat and grab a line at the stern before we go to the surface one by one and step out of the water. I wait quietly underwater for everyone and suddenly hear the opera melodies get louder as Nasem approaches. I push off and come to hang right above him just behind his head. I can even understand the words now, hahaha he just sings opera, fantastic! And that full-throttle underwater is quite a good thing, so with regulator in and I look at him in amazement. As soon as we are on deck I ask him about his singing talent. Nasem says that he always sings when he can fully enjoy himself, but as soon as he has to think or do an exercise he prefers to be quiet. Well that explains it all and I explain it to him and can only advise him not to sing during the dive in order to save air. But that is not possible with Nasem, who prefers to fully enjoy the dive with opera music on his vocal cords, ‘then just a short dive!’ he says. Hahaha
Love life… blow bubbles…